green – Page 2

Easy, Affordable, and Eco-Friendly Tips for Lawn Maintenance

A healthy, luscious, and vibrant green lawn is very appealing for many homeowners. A green and healthy yard will not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of the property, but it can also increase its value if you ever think about selling your property in the future. Unfortunately, a green garden doesn’t always guarantee a healthy and safe environment. Your lawn may look healthy and vibrant, but it can still cause harm towards the environment. The best solution to this dilemma is to take care of your lawn the natural way.

Green gardening is a practice that improves the health and look of your lawn without emitting dangerous chemicals and other toxic gases into the environment. Doing so will help you save time, money, and help you conserve natural resources. The following are easy green gardening tips for lawn maintenance.

Alternative Natural Ground Covers

There are a lot of available ground covers aside from grass. You can use a few of these alternative ground covers, including clover, mosses, juniper, and periwinkle. If you want to lower your lawn maintenance cost and still be eco-friendly, you can use low-mow grass species or ornamental grasses. These native grass species do not need constant maintenance and can grow even without human intervention. Additionally, it still offers the same benefits of living plants, such as prevent soil erosion, absorb air pollution, and filter rainwater pollution.

Conserve Water

If you want to focus on eco-friendly landscaping, you must pay close attention to conserving your water. There are a lot of lawns that are over-watered. This will waste valuable and finite resource, and it will contribute to fertilizer runoff. This happens when the fertilizer from your garden spills over into the storm sewers, which will eventually add to the water pollution. Here are some tips to conserve the amount of water used in your lawn:

Spot signs of over-watering: You must check if you are over-watering your lawn. Some of the signs to look out for include: runoff after watering the lawn; pale green or yellow tint on the lawn grass; and there are moss or mushrooms growing around the area. If you spot any of these signs, make sure to cut down the frequency with which you water your lawn.
Avoid watering everyday: If you water your lawn infrequently, it will not only help reduce water consumption, but it can also make your grass healthier. If you avoid watering your grass often, the roots will seek water deep into the soil, and the shorter weeds will run out of water. The downside of watering too frequently is that it can lead to thatch buildup, or the dense layer of living and dead stems and roots. Thatch can prevent the grass from getting their much needed water and air.
Water your lawn early in the day. It is best to water your lawn between 4 am and 9 am. During this time of the day, the air is cool and the wind is very calm; thus, the water won’t evaporate easily. Additionally, consider getting a rain sensor. This device will immediately turn off your sprinklers when it is raining; hence, you won’t need to waste water.

Reduce Energy

Lawn maintenance can easily pollute the environment by increasing carbon footprint and toxic gas emission. For this reason, you have to consider using eco-friendly methods that are healthier for the environment, and are much more budget-friendly.

Avoid using gas- or battery-powered lawnmowers: Gas-powered lawn mowers can produce nearly as much pollution as driving a motor vehicle for 100 miles. According to studies, this type of lawnmower is responsible for 5% of the total air pollution across the country. Even battery-powered motors and electric lawn mowers leave huge carbon footprint. Thankfully, there are alternative types of lawnmowers, such as reel lawnmower which is much more affordable and easy to use.
Use a manual mower, rakes, and brooms: Instead of using electric and gas-powered lawnmowers and leaf blowers, get a physical work-out using manual labor. You can use traditional rakes and brooms to get rid of fallen leaves. It is also a good idea to leave the grass clippings on the lawn since it can still fertilize the soil.

Citations:

Gregs Landscaping.”bluestone walkway with belgium block “. Online Image. EveryStockPhoto. Nov 20, 2012

Attached Images:

Â License: Creative CommonsÂ image source

The author, Kris Lim, is an avid gardener who offers tips and ideas for beginners on how to maintain the lawn. She also contributes her thoughts and ideas to lawn care and maintenance companies and websites, includingÂ newleafmaintenance.com.

Blooms and greenery everywhere

by Tricia

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Every time I look out my kitchen window or go into my backyard I’m amazed at how much it’s filled in.

It seems like the plants are growing within hours … not just days! That’s one of the things I love most about Spring – how fast things change and green up.

This is a photo of one of my raised garden beds in the backyard.

The “oval” as I call it separates the patio area from the lawn and garden portion of the backyard.

There are even more tulips throughout the garden beds than there were when I took that photo.

The Pasque flowers that I have in a very small area near the side of the house are blooming now too. Here’s a shot of a Pasque flower bud. The flower opened and started blooming on Thursday.

Unfortunately these flowers don’t seem to last very long so I expect they will be finished by sometime early next week. Maybe longer if the cool weather sticks around.

For a peek at my Grape Hyacinth (Muscari) and my Daffodils take a peek at my other blogs.

I think my garden is two weeks ahead this year

by Tricia

I can’t believe how well my garden is doing so far this Spring. We had a much warmer than usual March (that means above zero temps instead of -20 C!) and that seems to have put my garden ahead by at least two weeks.

The Crocuses are just about finished blooming in the backyard – although the ones in the shadier front lawn haven’t come up yet). The ones remaining in the back are wilted or just green leaves now. Here’s what they looked like about two weeks ago at their best:

The raised garden beds have little green patches throughout – the tulips leaves are almost fully grown, as are the hyacinth leaves. Some of the hyacinths have started to develop buds and I expect that they’ll be blooming in a few days. The Glories of the Snow are up as well and most are in bloom. Actually a lot of my spring bulbs are producing leaves or showing signs of life, the roses are starting to leaf out as well. It’s certainly nice to see all the green leaves as well as spots with pink and blue flowers.

My Danfordia irises were up and blooming last weekend, but then we let the dog out in the yard and she trampled them. 🙁 She also ate a few of the Crocus flowers and leaves and gave us a bit of a scare late that night when she wouldn’t settle down. She kept trying to lie down in various areas of our living room but then she’d jump up again and change spots a minute later. This went on for over two hours. So for now we’re not letting her out in the yard – when she gets excited (seeing the new puppy next door) she tends to bit plants randomly … that’s not good when there are some toxic plants out there!

So far my garden beds are looking good. They still have cedar mulch on them from last year.Â I did however spend some time tidying them up and pulling out oh maybe 100 tiny maple trees that had started growing in the still bare spots in the raised beds. With all the rain we’ve had in the past few days I’m sure I’ll have more to pull out this weekend.

How is your garden doing this Spring? Is it a week or two ahead because of warmer temps earlier in the year or is it behind?